The cover art was released alongside
the album's third single on June 5, 2017, and featured Khaled's son Asahd, who was born in October 2016.[3][4] Asahd was also revealed to be acting as the album's executive producer, with his father taking to talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! in March 2017 to explain the reasoning and process behind his son's position on the album, stating:
He is credited as executive producer, and his attorney has his points and royalties, everything. Listening to the songs, going over the business part of it, [deciding] if the vocals are right, if the beats are right, if the energy's right. When he [rocks and grins], those are smash hit records, when he [looks deep in thought], that's the real serious records but hits with substance. It's a vibe, you know what I mean? Believe it or not, the poops and the throw-ups are super blessings. Those are actually the real good ones. He actually threw up on me while I was mixing and working on "
Shining", and when he threw up on me, that [was] a blessing.[5]
Recording and production
The album also saw production from an array of producers, including several in-house producers from Khaled's
We the Best Music Group record label.
Cool & Dre and
Nasty Beatmakers co-produced two of the album's singles, which were heavily influenced by the
musical styles present in Miami. The former also contributed toward three additional songs on the album, teaming up with 808-Ray for each effort.[6][7] Other in-house producers
Danja and
Lee on the Beats additionally provided production, with Khaled enlisting the duo on several occasions prior for his previous albums.[8] Khaled later worked with Scottish producer and disc jockey
Calvin Harris, who also received a co-artist credit for "Don't Quit". The album was also comprised by several other
record producers such as
Nic Nac,
Ben Billions,
DannyBoyStyles, The Beat Bully, Schife, StreetRunner and Tarik Azzouz, among others.[9][10][11]
"
I'm the One" was released as the album's second single on April 28, 2017.[15][16] The song features guest appearances from Canadian singer
Justin Bieber, alongside American rappers
Quavo,
Chance the Rapper, and
Lil Wayne. It also saw production from Khaled himself, as well as being co-produced by
Nic Nac. "I'm the One" debuted at number one, becoming Khaled's first number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100; as well as also topping the charts in the
United Kingdom,
Australia and
Canada.[17]
"
Wild Thoughts" was released as the album's third single on June 16, 2017.[18] The song features guest appearances from Barbadian singer
Rihanna, and American singer
Bryson Tiller, with production by Khaled himself, and
Nasty Beatmakers as well as it was also co-written by Canadian singer
PartyNextDoor.[19][20] Khaled has previously collaborated with Tiller on Major Key, however, the single marks his first collaboration with Rihanna. Khaled described his attempts to court Rihanna for a feature appearance on an album for several years in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, stating "seven, eight years I've been trying to do this. I always put the kites out there that I wanted to work with her [and] I was always getting the right record ready [to] see if something comes back that's possible."[21] The single housed elements of
Latin pop and
contemporary R&B, debuting at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two.
Promotional singles
The promotional single from the album, "
To the Max", was released on June 5, 2017.[22] The single features guest appearances from Canadian rapper
Drake, with production by Khaled himself and JayO.[23] The song marked the fifth collaboration between the pair, and contained sampling from an array of musical genres, including
bassline and
alternative rock.[24] "To the Max" peaked at number 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, Grateful received an average score of 61, based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.[25]
Commercial performance
Grateful is Khaled's highest career first week sales to date. It debuted at number one on the US
Billboard 200, with 149,000
album-equivalent units, of which 50,000 were pure album sales.[30] It is DJ Khaled's second number-one album on the chart.[30] On July 14, 2017, Grateful was certified
gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and
album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States.[31] On August 23, 2017, the album was certified
platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and
album-equivalent units of over 1,000,000 domestic units. January 23, 2022, the album was certified
double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and
album-equivalent units of over 2,000,000 domestic units, making it DJ Khaled's best-selling album.[32]
"Wild Thoughts" features background vocals from
PartyNextDoor
"I Love You So Much" features background vocals from Lisa Mishra, Jabari Rayford, Teddy Jackson,
Jamila Woods, Dariu and
Carter Lang
"To the Max" was not included on streaming versions of the album internationally nor on Apple Music in the US; thus the track listing was cut down to 22 songs
Sample credits
"Shining" contains a sample of
Osunlade's "Dionne", which itself samples "Walk the Way You Talk" as performed by
Dionne Warwick.
"To the Max" contains a sample of "Gus Get Em Right" as performed by Jay-O, and vocal samples of
Jodie Aysha from her song "
Heartbroken", which was remixed by
T2, and "Lit" as performed by 1WayFrank.
"Wild Thoughts" contains a sample of "
Maria Maria" as performed by
Santana.
"On Everything" contains a sample of "Under the Sun" as performed by
Mark Pritchard.
"It's Secured" contains samples of "Dem Gone" as performed by Gentleman, and "Woman I Need You" as performed by
Sizzla.
"Nobody" contains a sample of "Nobody Knows" as performed by
Pastor T.L. Barrett.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100".
ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 26.Týden 2017 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved July 4, 2017.